Condemnation to the banks

While it is the banks that want to condemn us, we think that banks themselves should be condemned.

In order for there to be fraud, there needs to be wrongful appropriation. Wrongful appropriation is a crime committed against assets and property consisting of the appropriation of someone else’s property with the intention of profiting; said goods are legally in ones possession by other titles of possession as, for example, a loan could be.

And in this case Enric isn’t the one who has appropriated someone else’s property. Enric solicited loans that the bank gave out through the fractional reserve system, the system that allows banks to create money as debt. This system is responsible for the credit bubble. Currently private banks give out money that they don’t have, since it isn’t backed up by any concrete asset, but rather through powerful means of financial engineering the allow for the creation of money as debt, created from the money in the bank accounts of their customers.

This is why it is the bank that is really profiting from other people’s property, by speculating with their customers money. This is the wrongful appropriation, because one can’t speculate with with someone else’s property. For example, it would be wrongful appropriation if the owner of a parking lot began to rent the cars that were in their custody. But when the bank does it, it’s different; impunity can be bought.

If someone “robs” a thief to collectivize their properties, what are they? And if this thief has brought misery to millions of people and someone expropriates and denounces them to warn everyone, we ask again, what are they?

And on the other hand, in order for there to be fraud—as they accuse Enric—there has to be profit. Not only did Enric take action to show what these financial thieves—the banks—do, but above all he made it public in a way that has help create a network of integrated cooperatives that have surged since this first action. Enric didn’t profit from these loans; rather he recuperated them from the banks in order to put them to use as services for citizens with the different initiatives of the Catalan Integrated Cooperative, such as housing cooperatives, self-managed primary health care centers, free education…all of the services that the State is currently robbing from us. This is not profiting.

Profiting is what the banks do when they carry out more than 400,000 foreclosures and condemn thousands of families to absolute poverty, if not suicide, and force them continue making payments when they’ve already covered the mortgage by taking the house, charging them twice for the same loan. And let’s remember that they haven’t financed this with their own capital, but rather with our savings. This is a real example of profiting and wrongful appropriation.

And fraud is when the law obliges evicted citizens to make monthly payments to live in the streets.

Fraud is telling us that the public debt has risen to 1.8 billion euros when 1 billion is private debt that, with the complicity of the state, banks and large corporations have laundered as public debt.

Fraud is indebting citizens with billions of euros destined to Spanish banks so they can pay their debts to German and French banks, while an every-increasing part of the population slips into poverty. This is fraud and wrongful appropriation by financial entities.

Fraud is the fact those responsible for this institutional violence—what they call crisis—demand that they receive astronomical compensation, and it’s wrongful appropriation that this compensation is paid for with our money: the money we’ve paid in taxes, with public money that has been put invested in banks.

Fraud is the fact that Emilio Botín, Chairman of Banco Santender, is treated as a VIP; when he forgot to file his taxes it was treated as an error, not a crime, and he hasn’t had to return the 2 billion euros illegally deposited it Switzerland.

Fraud is the State guaranteeing 90 billion euros in order to buy all of the toxic assets of private bank, when what we need are social housing policies.

Fraud is the banks investing public money that the State loans to them at 1% interest in order to reactivate the loans and, with this money, buying public debt that the State has to pay back at 5% or 6% interest. This is an unacceptable form of speculation and robbery.

All of this is wrongful appropriation, fraud, and disrespect to all citizens.

The debt strapped onto our backs, the debt that doesn’t belong to us, is illegitimate. They demand budget cuts that have condemned us to poverty, degrading living standards, dismantling of public services, family instability, the loss of a future, and drug consumption, all while billions of euros are given to the banks.

Human rights are a matter of non-negotiable minimums; if they’re not met they can only be defended with a right, the right of rebellion.

“And if one day, by my choice or not, I’m brought to trial, I make it known that the only verdict I will accept will be acquittal by the court, considering that my action doesn’t constitute a crime, given it’s ethical and solidarity-driven motivation to condemn those who do the most damage to society. Beyond that, I will not negotiate to avoid being sentenced, nor will I pay bail, a fine, or negotiate the debt. If the State is incapable of escaping the pressure of real forces, then let the whole world see it keeping someone like me in prison.”

Enric Duran i Giralt

Enric Duran i Giralt was born on the 23d of April 1976 at 12.30 noon in Vilanova i la Geltrú, in the shire of Garraf. In this page we trace his political trajectory since he began to be involved with social and political movements. Following the chronological thread we can also see how the political, social and economical context has been changing, until the present systemic crisis has reached a free fall stage which shows the misery of the capitalist system. In this climate, where everything seems tragic, other practices are trying to paint new ways and give inspiration to keep on the long path towards empowerment and self direction.